Ha'afeva, Ha'apai Group, Kingdom of Tonga

Scott-Free’s blog
Steve & Chris
Sat 2 Nov 2013 02:14
19:56.538S 174:43.014W

Saturday 2nd November 2013

Ditance run: 91 nmiles

Lifted the anchor late afternoon yesterday and set off for the island of Ha'afeva in Ha'apai, the middle group of Tongan islands. It was a gentle overnight sail in clear starry skies, and we timed our arrival so that we had enough sunlight to show up the gap in the reef we needed to sail through into the anchorage. The anchor was down by 10 a.m., but thoughts of going ashore to visit the small community that live there were soon set aside in view of the lumpiness of the sea and the absence of a suitable place to land the dinghy in the conditions. The wind was from the NNE so the island gave little protection from it and the reef was not doing a great job of keeping the waves out of the anchorage.

So now we needed to decide whether to stay in this anchorage or move on. Having sailed overnight we decided to have a nap and then reassess. We eventually decided it wasn't too uncomfortable here, so we would stay until tomorrow, and then set off for another island in the group, either Nomuku or Kelefesia.